Sneak peek of a smart city

The Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the city of Cascais, Portugal, a city in the Lisbon metropolitan area. How? Through application programming interfaces (APIs) and digital innovations that have enabled Cascais to become a smart city.

What is a smart city?

A smart city is a city that invests in human and social capital, traditional infrastructure, and disruptive technologies that create economic growth and increase the quality of life for its citizens. By investing in smart city technologies such as smart sensors, mobile devices, and networks, opportunities to kick-start innovation have surfaced. So how is Cascais a smart city? Here’s how:

IoT solutions

Mobi.Cascais integrates public and private services to allow citizens to manage mobility services, such as bike or car sharing, smart parking, and taxis, through a connected mobile app. These services have increased citizen mobility savings from 10% to 23%.

Cascais has implemented smart waste management though sensors and integrations to enable operational and energy savings in the city. With €900,000 savings/year in waste management, Cascais has seen a 93% citizen satisfaction with these new IoT-enabled services.

FixCascais, an app that allows citizens to document and report problems in the city, enables direct communication between citizens and municipalities. Finally, CityPoints, an app that awards citizens with points for practices that benefit the city, allows citizens to exchange points for goods and services at local businesses.

Behind the scenes

With the help of Deloitte and CA Technologies, Cascais has implemented solutions that have turned concepts into an integrated and operational smart city. The city’s smart domains, government legacy systems, and data from smart objects are integrated into the Cascais Command Center (C3) developed on top of Deloitte’s city operating system, CitySynergy. CitySynergy is comprised of 5 platforms: CitySynergy Protect, CitySynergy Intelligence, CitySynergy Command, CitySynergy Insights, and CitySynergy Integrate.

With solutions from CA API Management, CitySynergy is able to fulfill API Integration, security, and scale requirements to support IoT. CA Service Management simplifies the process for end-users to request services and assets, resolve issues, and get answers by providing analytics and real-time dashboards.

CA API Management is built into the CitySynergy Integrate platform, helping to keep data protected and secured while maintaining open APIs. Combined with CA API Developer Portal, citizens and businesses can participate in the smart city to accelerate development while monitoring the flow of the data. Finally, with large volumes of data, CitySynergy Protect ensures a secure and compliant protective layer around C3.

With the help of IoT and APIs, Cascais has been able to transform into a next-generation smart city. With plans to further integrate more domains in the future, Cascais is becoming a city of the future.